[Niamh.]

When you think about it the Church (any church really) must be a very attractive option for paedophiles (certainly in the past but maybe not so much now as parents are much more aware and less intimidated by the church) they had so much power and respect from people in the community and so much opportunity to be around children. I think people would be less likely to blame the Church as an establishment if they had protected those children when they were made aware of a case of abuse and not tried to cover it up and instead protect the men involved. This is why that argument of "Not all priests are are like that" doesn't hold water for me, as an establishment the Church let people down very very badly and behaved in a way that was the exact opposite of what they're supposed to stand for